Top 4 teams retain stocks, record growth in double digits

3/12/2013

BY KRIS TURNERBLADE BUSINESS WRITER

The top four teams in The Blade’s Annual School Stock Contest will see if staying the course pays off.

The teams didn’t opt to change their holdings Friday — the only day participants were allowed to switch stocks during the 12-week event — and all have recorded double-digit growth since the contest’s start.

The teams in first, second, and fourth places are seniors in Jennifer Hoel’s financial algebra class at Springfield High School. Ms. Hoel said her students deliberated over changing their stocks but settled on keeping their portfolios the same.

“They didn’t want to lose their momentum and change things up,” she said. “Especially that team that was in first place, they had questioned it specifically. They had another company they had chosen and were considering switching.”

That team, JD2T, has seen its mythical portfolio grow 10.9 percent since the start of the contest but fell from its first-place standing in Week 4 to fourth place in Week 5. Its portfolio is valued at $44,358 and includes Netflix Inc., Globus Medical Inc., United Parcel Service Inc., and Columbia Sportswear Co.

The first-place spot is now occupied by 4SHS, which has grown 13.47 percent since the beginning of the contest and has holdings worth $45,388. The team’s stocks include Amazon Inc., Barnes & Noble Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc., and Equinix Inc.

The 115 participating teams are from northwest Ohio and southern Michigan. They were allotted a hypothetical $40,000 budget, and the funds were allocated evenly among four stocks. The stocks initially were worth at least $5 a share.

The contest runs through April 26.

Ronald Belle, investment advisers executive and senior vice president at Fifth Third, a contest sponsor, said favorable market conditions helped the top five teams push into double-digit growth.

“A common theme for each are portfolios made up of a mix of consumer discretionary stocks,” he wrote in a statement to The Blade. “When markets are reaching new highs, consumer discretionary stocks typically do very well. [That is] an outcome we have seen over the last five weeks.”

When the contest ends, the team with the best-performing portfolio will win $250 for the students and $250 for the school. Second place will receive $250 for the school, and third place gets $100 for the school. The contest is sponsored by The Blade’s Newspaper in Education program, the Taylor Automotive Family, Fifth Third, and the University of Toledo, which calculates the results.

CashFlo, a team in Amy Warnimont’s eighth-grade advanced math class at All Saints Catholic School in Rossford, slipped from second last week to fifth place this week. It switched one of its stocks on Friday. The team began the contest with holdings in Netflix, Time Warner Inc., Marathon Petroleum Corp., and Visa Inc. It traded Visa for AMERCO, the parent company of U-Haul. The team’s value has increased 10.79 percent since the start of the contest, and its portfolio is worth $44,314.

Contact Kris Turner at: kturner@theblade.com or 419-724-6103.

The leaders in The Blade School Stock Contest after Week 5, with team name, school, and portfolio value. Each team started with a mythical $40,000.